It’s in the Doing

Scripture Reading — 1 John 4:7-21

We love because he first loved us.
— 1 John 4:19

John
speaks directly to the heart of love as he writes, “Dear friends,
let us love one another, for love comes from God.” Loving is not an
abstract, optional concept. It originates with God, and we pass along
God’s love in our relationships with others.

Lewis
Smedes put it this way in his book Love
Within Limits: “God’s love song is in many ways like
other great love songs. . . . Our challenge is to find ways
to bring the heavenly rhapsody down into our own worldly ­realities.”
How true—and how difficult! Only one person, Jesus, lived out
perfectly the demands of perfect love, and he was crucified.

Living
with one another gets messy, and people can be so difficult! We live
with family, friends, and neighbors who often seem determined to test
even our desire to love. But God didn’t command us to like
one another. Jesus, after stating that the greatest commandment is
“Love the Lord your God . . .” reminded everyone
that the second is this: “Love your neighbor as yourself”
(Matthew 22:37-39).

That
is not an optional command. Jesus also described it as a new command
and gave the reason for us to obey it: “As I have loved you, so you
must love one another” (John 13:34).

Jesus
expects us to obey his commands. And he promises he will help us.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, often we are difficult to love. Thank you for always loving us and being our example of patience and perseverance as we seek to love others in your name. Amen.